Angola

Where the name comes from

Angola comes from ngola, the title of the Mbundu rulers of Ndongo, in what is now northern Angola.

First people

Khoisan hunter-gatherers lived here first; Bantu-speaking farmers later arrived and built kingdoms such as Kongo and Ndongo.¹

Known for

Angola is one of Africa’s largest oil producers and the home of semba, the music and dance that later inspired kizomba.²

Outside rule

The Portuguese settled at Luanda in 1576; conquest and the Atlantic slave trade then spread colonial control inland.¹

The modern country

Angola won independence from Portugal in 1975, but rival liberation movements then fought a civil war that, with pauses, lasted until 2002, as Cold War powers took sides.³